NJ Lawmaker: Traffic Plot was `An Abuse of Power'

Special Legislative Committee to Convene This Week

A high-ranking New Jersey Democrat says an investigation into massive local traffic jams that has ensnared Gov. Chris Christie's administration has grown into an abuse of power probe.

Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald says a new special legislative committee will be tasked with finding out how high up Christie's chain of command the plot went.

Greenwald, a Democrat, says, "it is clearly an abuse of power. The question is, who abused their power and how high did it go?"

The Assembly announced the committee's formation Monday. The bipartisan panel will have subpoena power and a special council appointed to it and will focus exclusively on the closing of traffic lanes leading to one of the world's busiest bridges, an apparent political payback scheme carried out by Christie loyalists.